SEEING CLEARLY

Time with Jesus - Monday, 08 April 2013  

Hi all,

 Consequences: There are consequences to everything we do. Every breath we breathe in, more or less guarantees that we will breathe out. If we don’t bother with our studies, it more or less guarantees that we will not pass at the end of the year. If I don’t care about others, in all probability, they won’t care for me. If I drop a ball, it will fall to the ground and bounce; how high depends on the ball and the ground it hits.

As a young apprentice, I accidentally dropped a steel nut into a main steam pipe while the plant was being overhauled. If I said nothing, the nut could cause major damage. I didn’t know what to do. To say nothing would have been easy. What the consequences would be if I reported this to the boss, was intimidating. 

The boss happened to be my dad. That made it more difficult. I’d seen him angry before and it scared me. He would have been angrier if that had damaged anything. So I told him what had happened. He didn’t bat an eye. Instead we went into “finding the nut” mode. It took us 3 days to get to it. When the job was over and done, he took me to one side and thanked me for being truthful. He added that if anything like that happened again, he would be furious with me! 

That’s when I remembered that when he was an apprentice and about the same age as I was then, his elder brother had stepped backward into a hole and had fallen to his death. It was a silly accident. The consequences lasted a lifetime. Twin girls, my cousins don’t remember their father. I was born after the accident so I didn’t meet him. Those were the consequences of a silly mistake. Thank God I told my dad about that nut!

Shalom,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland 

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Monday, 08 April 2013			Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give
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INTRODUCTION			DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES	Seeing Clearly
Consequences! Everything we do has a consequence. Even doing nothing has a consequence. Many of the things we do are coincidental. They are the result of natural laws that God has put in place in the universe. If I step off the roof, the consequence could be fatal. The fact that I was standing next to someone may be a coincidence. If he pushed me off the roof, it couldn’t be a coincidence. It was someone using the consequence of the law of gravity to “get rid” of me. Some would argue that God had told him to do it. Others would say, “The devil made me do it!” Others may suggest that I was foolishly testing my own jumping ability. The outcome for me would be the same. We often warn our children not to do certain things. “Don’t touch the hot plate, it will burn you” is a classic example. The child does it and gets burned. That was a consequence of disobedience. Often, children do these things to see if what we say is true. They get a quick lesson in consequences.  Hopefully not playing hopscotch on the motorway! There is an aspect of consequences that we don’t understand when we make choices. The impact it will have on life in the future. Having children is perhaps the greatest example. Even if the choice was accidental and unplanned, the consequence is permanent for the mother and the father. In the vast majority of cases the children will outlive their parents. So for the parents, the consequences are lifelong. For a Christian, the decision to make Jesus Christ Lord of life, has eternal consequences. It is life changing on this side of the grave and, on the other side, dictates our ultimate destination. Today’s meditation refers to an unfortunate incident in the life of a friend of mine. Circumstances “conspired” to give him “arc eyes”. For the next couple of weeks he had to visit the sick bay for treatment. It was the brilliant light from welding that caused it. He had looked at the wrong place at the wrong time. Scripture informs us that to look at the face of God would kill us. 20 But you can't see my face," he (God) said. "No one can see me and stay alive." Exodus 33:20 NIrV But the day will come when we will see Him and will not die. This will be the day He returns! 16 For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thess. 4:16-17 NLT Now this is something to look forward to. The consequence of committing our life to Jesus will become reality. Jim & Phyllida Strickland			4 And they will see His face, and His name will be written on their foreheads. Rev 22:4 NLT 18 Then Moses said, "Please let me see your glory." 19 The LORD said, "I will let all my goodness pass in front of you, and there I will call out my name 'the LORD.' I will be kind to anyone I want to. I will be merciful to anyone I want to. 20 But you can't see my face, because no one may see me and live." Exodus 33:18-20 GW 18 No one has ever seen God. But God, the one and only Son, is at the Father's side. He has shown us what God is like. John 1:18 NIrV 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. Rev 1:7 ESV 17 "I see him, but I don't see him now. I view him, but he isn't near. A star will come from among the people of Jacob. A king will rise up out of Israel. He'll crush the foreheads of the people of Moab. He'll crush the skulls of all of the sons of Seth. Num. 24:17 NIrV 25 "But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and He will stand upon the earth at last. 26 And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! Job 19:25-26 NLT 15 Because I do what is right, I will enjoy your blessing. When I wake up, I will be satisfied because I will see you. Psalm 17:15 NIrV 2 Dear friends, we are already God's children, but He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is. 1 John 3:2 NLT 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 1 Thess. 4:16-17 ESV	When I was an apprentice, in nineteen sixty three, There was a silly accident to someone close to me. Another friend was welding; and so he “struck an arc”. A light so very blinding, he wore a pair of dark “Glasses” on his helmet to see the welding place. And also keep the sparks away from flying on his face. The man who did the welding was very highly skilled. They called upon him often: The company was thrilled, Because of his ability to do the hardest job. A talent that had raised him above the average mob. My other friend was watching. He should have turned away. But he was not quite quick enough when he stood there that day. The welder started welding and as the arc was struck, It seemed on this occasion my friend was “out of luck”! The light, in all it’s brilliance, went straight into his eyes, And left him semi-blinded. If only he’d been wise, It never would have happened. A price he had to pay. To let his eyes recover in the company’s sick bay. The moral of the exercise is something Moses learned. Just a little look at God; he could be badly burned. A welding flash is nothing compared with what will be, If by some odd coincidence, the face of God we see.   Exodus 33:20 My friend was semi-blinded. The flash was very bright. But that is next to nothing. If somehow, we catch sight, Of Father in His Majesty we cannot stay alive! His purity and brilliance; we simply can’t survive. And yet, the Lord has told us, that there will be a day, When we will look upon Him and not be blown away! John tells us in his letter; his first one in God’s Word, We’ll see Him and be like Him. I know it sounds absurd! But we’ll be like the Saviour! He will protect our eyes.        1 John 3:2 We will not need a helmet when we meet Him in the skies. If we continue doing, the things He says are right, He said He’ll turn the darkness into everlasting light! The shout of the archangel and the trumpet of the Lord,  1 Thess. 4:16-17 Will snatch us from the graveyard to come for our reward. And nothing could be better than being face to face, With Father, Son and Spirit and feeling their embrace. Jim Strickland  Written 8th April 2012.